Blue Monday?

January can be an exciting month because it implies freshness, new beginnings, and a chance to start over. But January is a depressing time for many. There are fewer hours of sunlight and even those hours are usually gray and dreary. The Christmas bills are beginning to arrive. The W2 showing just how little you earned last year has arrived. Plus you've made all those wonderful resolutions to lose weight so you can't even turn to the chocolate box to lift your spirits.With the shortened days and the self-inflicted chocolate withdrawal symptoms, January seems like one giant Christmas hangover.

Much of the media have declared today - the third Monday in January - as the most depressing day of the year. The media has tagged today as Blue Monday. Now I can't say if the majority of Americans suffer a day of depression on Blue Monday, but I can say that this particular Blue Monday is a good one for me.

This is the last Monday that I will be making a 45-mile commute to my current job. Retirement Monday mornings begin next week.This Monday is almost the last day that I will awakening in my current nest. Two weeks from today I will awaken in my new nest in North Carolina and begin unpacking moving boxes. This Monday is the last time I will have to complain about going out to spend money on fast food for lunch because I was too lazy to prepare my lunch at home - next Monday I will be at home at lunch time!

This is the last Monday that I will be pulling away from my office in my little red truck that our custodian loaded down with moving boxes.

Sadly, this is the last Monday I will be talking to my south-Georgia sister for one hour each weekday. When I first moved to Powder Springs, I was complaining about my commute simply because I like leaving before the roads get crowded - which meant leaving around 6:00 a.m. It was hard for me to not nod off from road hypnosis once I got on I-20 and started that long drive in the dark. Sister #2 said that she is always up that early and that if I would call her she would be glad to talk me through. She has been true to her word. Almost every weekday morning for the last six years, I have dialed her number and she has cheerily answered the phone and listened patiently as I chatted my way from Powder Springs to Conyers. We have covered every topic from religion and spirituality to decorating to health issues to children to politics to investing and back again to decorating and children. She has been my soul spirit as well as my friend. She has given me love and laughter, support and encouragement, rejoicing in my good times, a shoulder to cry on in my hard times, and a kick in the butt when I needed it.

This road I have been walking for so many years is now coming to an end. But Blue Monday? Not in my heart at all this year. This year it's a New Monday.